She Left Her Heart In Chicago
by Tracy Diane Miller
Summary: A woman from Gary's past returns to Chicago. Is romance in the air?


She Left Her Heart In Chicago  
  
Summary: This very short story is based on "Romancing The Throne."  
  
Disclaimer: Early Edition characters belong to whoever created them. No copyright infringement intended. No profit is being made. Some of the dialogue that appears in this story is not my own, but belongs to the writer of the Early Edition episode "Romancing The Throne."  
  
Author: Tracy Diane Miller  
  
E-mail address: tdmiller82@hotmail.com  
  
  
  
She Left Her Heart In Chicago  
  
She remembered.  
  
She gently placed her hand on top of his as they gazed into each other's eyes. Against the backdrop of the beautiful and unassuming Chicago skyline, he kissed her. His kiss was tender and wonderful and had left her skin tingly. She had never felt that way before. She was a princess and her whole life had been about responsibility and suppressing her emotions in order to fulfill her royal destiny. And responsibility often concealed emotion under a stoic veneer. But he had awakened her emotions, caressed her feelings in a way that no one else had ever done before him. He had given her a lovely holiday. It was the best time of her life and something that she had always remembered. It has been almost five years since she had seen him, but she had never forgotten him.  
  
She sighed forlornly. Had he forgotten her?  
  
As she sat on the plane returning to the "Windy City" that had warmed her heart years before, she stared out the window, her eyes focused on the impatient clouds that performed an animated ballet in the heavens. Why were the clouds so impatient? What responsibility did they have? None. They were gypsies. The clouds were gypsies free to explore their wanderlust. They could savor their role in the universe unencumbered by the demands of a birthright.  
  
Her fingers traced the precious glass of the snow globe that sat on a lap. The globe had been a gift from him. Perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her because as she looked into the globe, it appeared to possess the wonderment and allure of a magical crystal ball. However, this "crystal ball" wasn't an emissary of the future, but a protector of cherished memories from the past. She saw them inside of that crystal ball, Gary and "Lowie", two carefree spirits twirling around and laughing on the ice. Then she saw him again and he was looking at her with those beautiful, sincere, and gentle mud green eyes that had the ability to make everyone else disappear and make the moment be just about the two of them. She was giving her final speech during her last visit to Chicago. At first she didn't see him in the crowd of onlookers waiting to hear the words of a poised and diplomatic princess. She hadn't told him the truth about her identity. She assumed that she would never see him again after her tearful goodbye with him on the street before she returned to her hotel room. But somehow he knew. And he was there anticipating her words, but not the words scripted from royal protocol. She sensed that he wanted to hear the words emerging directly from her heart. So, in the crowded room of media hounds, she was speaking only to him:  
  
"The best part of my visit to Chicago was the people. Their warmth, their kindness, the way they welcomed me into their lives, is something that I shall cherish forever. If circumstances were different, it's the kind of city that I could happily spend the rest of my life."  
  
She saw the gleam in his eye and she knew that he understood. Then she felt a pang in her chest as she watched him walk away. She had never regretted her life before then. Like her father, and his father before him, she had embraced her heritage with its command of public duty and personal sacrifice.  
  
If circumstances were different.  
  
It didn't matter to her that she would never meet most of her subjects or get to know them personally. They were her people. They depended on her and she had a responsibility to them. It was an invisible contract forged through historical roots and maintained through mutual obligation. The Morenian people pledged their loyalty to their monarch and the monarch pledged his responsibility to assure the betterment of his people. That was a lesson that her father had instilled in her and it was a lesson that she had taken to heart.  
  
But that didn't mean that she didn't crave a normal life. That didn't mean that she didn't hunger for the carriage ride of two people in love who soaked in the sights of the city while their eyes soaked in the splendor of each other. That didn't mean that she didn't wish for the thrill of an amusement park where she could gorge on cotton candy without the worry that such gluttony would be viewed as "unseemly" or that she didn't want to experience the exhilaration of a roller coaster whose speed remained unhindered by convention. She wanted to scream in excitement while the roller coaster roared to the bottom of a chartered path. Normal wasn't boring. Normal was about self-discovery without the burden of obligation offering murky waters.  
  
The sound of the pilot announcing that the plane was descending and requesting that she fasten her seat belt jolted her from her musings. After the plane landed, she instructed her driver that she didn't want to go directly to her hotel room. There was some place else that she needed to go to first. It didn't take long for the car to reach its destination. She exited the car and walked the short distance towards McGinty. She took a deep breath before entering the bar.  
  
Someone directed her towards the office. She hesitated briefly before knocking on the door.  
  
"Come in." The familiar voice said.  
  
Her heart was pounding. She saw him seated at the desk. His head was down and he appeared to be pouring over paper work.  
  
"Gary."  
  
He looked up. Their eyes locked. So much appeared to be said in that silent moment of their stare. He rose from the chair.  
  
"Sibella." He whispered.  
  
The End. 


End file.
